Over the past few years, a significant number of books have been published on the topic of corporate governance and social responsibility (see e.g. Baker & Anderson, 2010; Calder, 2008; Fernando, 2009). The current volume is one of the latest of this set. The book presents the scholarly work of contributors based in Brazil, Canada, France, Malaysia, Romania, Turkey, and the UK. The purpose of the book is to investigate the impacts of businesses in a globalised world and recognize the foundations of good governance and elements of a global market, by taking a cross-cultural interdisciplinary perspective to governance in the business environment. It forms part of the wider literature on institutions and international business (Mudambi and Navarra, 2002). Overall, the book is well-written and combines theoretical and empirical aspects of corporate governance in an organized manner.
The increasing numbers of scandals such as management frauds have focused the attention of the stakeholders of the firm on the impact of corporate governance (CG) on the performance of firms (Coffee, 2005). In turn, this has resulted in growing attention being paid to CG by managers, practitioners and stakeholders as a necessity for the long-term growth and survival of any firm. As editors of the book argue, in reaction to all the corporate scandals that we have witnessed in the past decade, an increasingly number of firms are making statements about their governance in their annual reports and corporate websites.
The first part of the book is dedicated to some theoretical developments concerned with good governance in the new business arena, while the second part of the book aims to provide a better understanding of the issues and controversies stemming from practices of governance in various locations.
The theory part covers a range of issues such as the governance of markets and how it has led to recent global crisis, shape of future society and the impact of technology on governance, CSR-marketing relations and the critical importance of social responsibility programmes in times of recession, mapping the activities of current and emerging multinational corporations and their compliance level with the current corporate governance frames, failures in governance, and importance of understanding the root causes of failures.
The practical part of the book first brings about insights from the Japanese car manufacturing industry by investigating the impact of the crisis on the corporate governance of Japanese automakers and the role of culture in this regard. Then, corporate governance and social responsibility in China, which is the world’s second largest economy, are discussed and the influence of China’s political, social, and economic developments on global economy are investigated. By discussing the concept and dimensions of globalization and providing insights from leading private institutions in Mauritius, the relationship between globalization and CSR activities is then investigated. Next, the book extends its scope to CSR disclosure and explores the impacts of advances in information technology on CSR reporting by examining Malaysian public listed companies. Findings of this section provide support for the importance of IT in dissemination of information and argue that annual report is not the only medium of social and environmental disclosure for companies. Finally, the last section of the book argues the historical, political and economic drivers for social responsibility movement of world’s business firms.
What makes the book successful is the elegant combination of theory and practice, which first equips the readers with the fundamental aspects related to good governance and then turns theoretical aspects into practice by presenting empirical studies of governance and CSR practices from different countries. The result is a promising book that has both theoretical perspectives and real world examples to which students, practitioners and researchers can relate. The book will be rewarding for students and lecturers alike, and will make a good reading material for MBA students and classes with a focus of sustainability and governance issues.
If I have any criticism of the book, it is that while the first part of the book provides necessary theoretical foundation and insights for International audience, the second part of the books is limited to some empirical findings which are mostly from developing and emerging countries and fails to provide insights from developed countries which assumingly are far ahead in this regard. Perhaps a mixture of practical perspectives from both developing and developed countries could better highlight the impact of good corporate governance on business performance and explain the opportunities and threats in the interim to establish good organizational governance.
References
Baker, H. K., & Anderson, R. (2010). Corporate Governance: A Synthesis of Theory, Research, and Practice (Vol. 8): Wiley.
Calder, A. (2008). Corporate Governance: A Practical Guide to the Legal Frameworks and International Codes of Practice: Kogan Page Ltd.
Coffee, J. 2005. A theory of corporate scandals: why the US and Europe differ. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 21(2): 198-211.
Fernando, A. C. (2009). Corporate Ethics, Governance, and Social Responsibility: Precepts and Practices: Pearson Education India.
Mudambi, R. and Navarra, P. 2002. Institutions and international business: a theoretical overview. International Business Review, 11(6): 635-646.